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DAMASCUS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The evacuation of the remaining rebels from Syria's northern city of Aleppo will start soon, the Syrian army said on Thursday, as both parties finally agreed to a deal that also sees a ceasefire.
Following intense negotiations, a ceasefire returns in place for the evacuation of the rebels from the few areas they are still holding in the eastern part of Aleppo city, said the report, adding that the evacuation will start within hours.
Preparations are ongoing for the evacuation of the rebels from eastern Aleppo toward the town of Khan Tuman southwest of Aleppo, through the Ramouseh road, the main road the government in the southern rim of Aleppo, after the international road to Aleppo was closed long ago due the rebel control of some points of it near the northwestern province of Idlib.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the first convoy of wounded people started leaving eastern Aleppo toward the government-controlled part west of the city.
The UK-based watchdog group noted the rebel convoys haven't started leaving yet.
The rebel evacuation from the few areas under their control in eastern Aleppo comes as a result of a Turkish-Russian deal, which was supposed to begin on Wednesday morning, but was delayed and fight resumed for undeclared reasons, before Thursday morning, as the deal seems in place again.
In the meantime, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV released some of the items of the deal concluded for the rebel evacuation.
The deal includes allowing the rebels to leave eastern Aleppo with their personal guns only, as well as civilians who want to leave with them.
The Russian and Syrian side will take care of securing the convoys to their destination in the western countryside of Aleppo.
The deal also stipulates that both parties observe a truce during the evacuation process.
It placed the overall number of the people who will leave including rebels at 15,000.
In exchange for the evacuation in eastern Aleppo, the rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib will allow civilians to leave the two besieged Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa.
For its part, the UN said the evacuation process is ongoing, but there is "security incidents."
It's worth mentioning that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were engaged in the evacuation process.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, said that the deal, which was planned to begin on Wednesday, was initially disrupted by the Syrian government, as there are 250 foreign fighters among the rebels in eastern Aleppo.
The Syrian army wanted to interrogate these fighters, said the Observatory.
Also, the regime obstructed the deal on Wednesday because it had nothing in return, but after the negotiations continued on Wednesday, coupled with resumed fights, the government has apparently got its conditions accepted.
After weeks-long battles, the Syrian army has become in control of 99 percent of eastern Aleppo, with over 85,000 civilians fleeing toward government-controlled areas.
Hundreds of rebels also fled, but the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which was in control of large parts of the ancient city of Aleppo, and some neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city, was refusing to leave.
But when the army closed in on the few remaining neighborhoods, the Western powers sounded the alarm and went on a barrage of accusations on the Syrian army of allegedly carrying out atrocities in easter Aleppo.
The Syrian government denied the accusations, saying the West was furious because the army succeeded to capture all of Aleppo.
In an interview to RT released Wednesday, al-Assad said that "West is telling Russia we went too far in defeating terrorists."
